North expected to expel Red Army

Members of the Japanese Red Army who had been protected by Pyeongyang will likely be expelled after Red Cross talks between North Korea and Japan, which are scheduled to take place this month.

"North Korea has already decided on the fate of the Red Army troops and their families," a well-informed Japanese source said Wednesday. "They may be repatriated within a few months." the source added.

The Japanese leftists, blamed for a string of terrorist attacks in the 1970s and '80s, received asylum in Pyeongyang after hijacking a Japan Airlines passenger jet and landing it in the North in March 1970.

The North has hinted at getting rid of Red Army members for the past 11 months.

Shin Ji-ho, a researcher at Samsung Economic Research Center, said North Korea hopes to improve relations with Tokyo and Washington by severing ties with the terrorist group. Washington has said ousting the Red Army is one step the North can take to show it is serious about opposing terror.

Jo Myong-rok, vice-chairman of the North's National Defense Commission, said during his visit to Washington in October 2000 that Pyeongyang opposes all forms of terrorism. A year later North Korea joined two international anti-terror pacts.

Some diplomatic sources warn that driving out the Red Army does not guarantee Pyeongyang's removal from the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism, because the United States strengthened scrutiny after the Sept.11 attacks in New York and Washington.

But the Red Army issue could still serve as a catalyst for a thaw in the North's relations with Japan. Ties deteriorated sharply after a ship Tokyo says was North Korean was sank in a shoot out with a Japanese patrol boat in the East China Sea last year.

Japan is most concerned with Japanese nationals who disappeared in the 1970s and '80s. Tokyo believes they were abducted to the North.

by Choi Won-ki